Zane Goddard was an unexpected pacesetter at the first official pre-season Supercars test.

The Matt Stone Racing driver made the most of the speedy early conditions, going quickest with what proved to be an unassailable 1m09.025s just after the half-hour mark.

Dick Johnson Racing newcomer Anton De Pasquale and Goddard’s MSR teammate Jake Kostecki went close to matching the benchmark moments later, but fell 0.006s and 0.01s short respectively.

As conditions then fell away the early pace couldn’t be repeated across the seven hours that followed, leaving Goddard with a morale-boosting start to his second full-time Supercars campaign.

“It’s funny, my fastest lap was within the first 40 minutes,” he said. “The rest of the day was just watching the track get hot.

“I’m pretty happy with it. Obviously you don’t know what everyone else is doing, whether they’re running new tyres or not. It’s hard to read into, but it’s good for morale to be at the top.”

Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison, Dick Johnson Racing

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Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison, Dick Johnson Racing

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Anton De Pasquale, Dick Johnson Racing

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Will Davison, Dick Johnson Racing

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Zane Goddard, Matt Stone Racing

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Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering

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Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering

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Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering

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Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering

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Craig Lowndes, Triple Eight Race Engineering

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Zane Goddard, Matt Stone Racing

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Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering

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Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering

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Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering

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Garth Tander and Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering

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Garry Jacobson, Team Sydney

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Garry Jacobson, Team Sydney

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Fabian Coulthard, Team Sydney

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Fabian Coulthard, Team Sydney

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Fabian Coulthard, Team Sydney

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Fabian Coulthard, Team Sydney

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Fabian Coulthard, Team Sydney

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Garry Jacobson, Team Sydney

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Goddard and Kostecki completed just 78 and 57 laps respectively today, the MSR crew packing up well before the track closed. They did, however, come into today’s test with more running than their rivals courtesy of a full rookie test day on Wednesday.

They’ll also return for a second rookie test next week before the season kicks off at Mount Panorama at the end of the month.

De Pasquale completed a total of 95 laps on what was his first proper appearance in DJR colours following Wednesday’s new chassis shakedown.

Triple Eight set the pace in terms of running, the #88 and #97 Commodores covering 131 and 166 laps respectively. That included stints in the cars for both enduro drivers Craig Lowndes and Garth Tander, the latter enjoying a brief off-track excursion during the morning session.

There were no Hollywood times from title contenders Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen, though, the pair fourth and fifth quickest.

Will Davison completed 90 laps on what marked his return to DJR, finishing sixth quickest, while Team Sydney’s new recruits Garry Jacobson and Fabian Coulthard rounded out the timesheet.

Coulthard, did, however, encounter some teething problems early in the day with radio and gearbox issues which cost him some running, while team owner Jonathon Webb also spent time in the #19 entry.

The remaining seven teams were meant to hold their pre-season at Winton next Tuesday, only for a fresh COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne to spark a five-day snap lockdown starting midnight tonight.

As a result the Winton test has been shifted back to next Friday.

Queensland Raceway pre-season test results

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